Utility workers maintain the cleanliness and orderly condition of different facilities. They clean the premises, do landscaping, and regularly inspect equipment and machinery to assure they are functional. They fix what is broken, if necessary, and make sure working areas comply with safety regulations.
Utility workers use a lot of different equipment to perform their duties. They drive vehicles and operate landscaping tools and carry out physically demanding tasks as well, such as lifting or climbing.
As this is an entry-level position, you do not need specific education or extensive experience to do this job. If you follow instructions and take care of the assigned tasks to a high standard, the possibility to take over the lead of the maintenance department is there for advancement. Manufacturing sites, healthcare centers, parks, schools, transportation and commercial facilities are always welcoming utility workers to join their staff.
How to Become a Utility Worker
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a utility worker. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.23 an hour? That's $31,679 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 85,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Utility Worker Do
There are certain skills that many utility workers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, dexterity and troubleshooting skills.
How To Become a Utility Worker
If you're interested in becoming a utility worker, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 15.4% of utility workers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.1% of utility workers have master's degrees. Even though some utility workers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a utility worker. When we researched the most common majors for a utility worker, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on utility worker resumes include bachelor's degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a utility worker. In fact, many utility worker jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many utility workers also have previous career experience in roles such as sales associate or warehouse worker.
Utility Worker Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of machine operator you might progress to a role such as driver eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title superintendent.
Average Salary for a Utility Worker
What Am I Worth?
Top Skills For a Utility Worker
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 28.3% of utility workers listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and dexterity are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Utility Worker Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Utility Worker templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Utility Worker resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Utility Worker Demographics
Utility Worker Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among utility workers, 16.9% of them are women, while 83.1% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among utility workers is White, which makes up 66.8% of all utility workers.
- The most common foreign language among utility workers is Spanish at 70.5%.
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Best States For a Utility Worker
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a utility worker. The best states for people in this position are Nevada, Washington, Hawaii, and California. Utility workers make the most in Nevada with an average salary of $43,565. Whereas in Washington and Hawaii, they would average $41,302 and $38,126, respectively. While utility workers would only make an average of $37,806 in California, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Washington
$41,302
Avg. Salary
2. Nebraska
$35,680
Avg. Salary
3. Nevada
$43,565
Avg. Salary
How Do Utility Worker Rate Their Jobs?
Top Utility Worker Employers
Most Common Employers For Utility Worker
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | City of Houston | $43,601 | $20.96 | 106 |
| 2 | CSX | $34,207 | $16.45 | 64 |
| 3 | United States Steel | $33,429 | $16.07 | 53 |
| 4 | Georgia-Pacific | $31,679 | $15.23 | 247 |
| 5 | HMSHost | $31,679 | $15.23 | 72 |
| 6 | ManpowerGroup | $31,391 | $15.09 | 63 |
| 7 | Cintas | $29,873 | $14.36 | 97 |
| 8 | PeopleReady | $29,755 | $14.31 | 73 |
| 9 | Fluor Corporation | $29,375 | $14.12 | 119 |
| 10 | International Paper | $29,190 | $14.03 | 56 |
Utility Worker Videos
